I loved this, but not as much as "Aztec." The opening was slower and it seemed a bit more contrived. Like when he left his girlfriend for a year to buy a present for a friend, and when two characters reappear after their story arc is played out, well... you just know what's going to happen! Still, I wasn't disappointed, and Aztec is a tough act to follow. ( )

1,058 pages of delight. Incredible in its detail of customs, culture, foods, et cetera, including the sheer adventure of it all! Not counting the liberal sprinkling of foreign words, I was shocked to find an estimated 300 English words that I had never encountered before (a humbling experience!). On the other hand, although I was not consciously doing proofreading, I did note around 30 typos that jumped off the page. Bottom line: Thoroughly enjoyable and great escape! ( )

Come hither, great princes! Come hither, explorers and kings, dukes and marquises, knights and burgesses! Come hither, you people of all degrees, who wish to see the many faces of mankind and to know the diversities of the whole world!Take up this book and read it, or have it read to you.For herein you will find all the greatest wonders and most marvelous curiosities...

Dedication

For Glenda

First words

Ah, Luigi, Luigi!

Quotations

Last words

I bid you farewell, Rustchello of Pisa, and I subscribe myself

Marco Polo of Venice and the World, His Yin:Set down this 20th day of September in the Year of Our Lord 1319, by the Han count 4017, the year of the Ram.

Marco Polo was nicknamed "Marco of the millions" because his Venetian countrymen took the grandiose stories of his travels to be exaggerated, if not outright lies. As he lay dying, his priest, family, and friends offered him a last chance to confess his mendacity, and Marco, it is said, replied "I have not told the half of what I saw and did." Now Gary Jennings has imagined the half that Marco left unsaid as even more elaborate and adventurous than the tall tales thought to be lies. From the palazzi and back streets of medieval Venice to the sumptuous court of Kublai Khan, from the perfumed sexuality of the Levant to the dangers and rigors of travel along the Silk Road, Marco meets all manner of people, survives all manner of danger, and, insatiably curious, becomes an almost compulsive collector of customs, languages and women.In more than two decades of travel, Marco was variously a merchant, a warrior, a lover, a spy, even a tax collector - but always a journeyer, unflagging in his appetite for new experiences, regretting only what he missed. Here - recreated and reimagined with all the splendor, the love of adventure, the zest for the rare and curious that are Jennings's hallmarks - is the epic account, at once magnificent and delightful, of the greatest real-life adventurer in human history.

From the perfumed sexuality of the Levant to the dangers and rigors of travel along the Silk Road, Marco Polo meets all manner of people, survives all manner of danger, and becomes an almost compulsive collector of customs, languages, and women.